The direction of attributed responsibility for the occurrence of stressful life events in the year prior to illness onset was examined for 120 survivors of myocardial infarction and 40 patients with chest pain but without myocardial infarction. Additionally, feelings of helplessness in response to the same events were examined to collectively test the hypothesis that patients with the more serious illness of myocardial infarction would see responsibility for stressful life events as lying primarily with sources other than themselves, and would thereby be characterized by feelings of helplessness. The two groups were not significantly different on measures of responsibility, but patients with myocardial infarction reported significantly greater feelings of helplessness than the other group. This, together with a significant negative correlation between helplessness and self-responsibility, and significant positive correlations between other and chance responsibility, was considered to give firm but indirect support to the hypothesis.